This report documents the systematic exclusion of hijab-wearing students and teachers from public educational institutions in Azerbaijan, following the Cabinet of Ministers’ approval of revised school uniform regulations on 21 September 2026.
While the regulations do not explicitly name the hijab, their enforcement has resulted in the deliberate and documented denial of access to education for observant Muslim girls across Azerbaijan. Female teachers wearing headscarves have similarly been dismissed, excluded, or subjected to ultimatums forcing them to choose between their faith and their profession.
As of 12 October 2026, Azerbaijani authorities confirmed the arrest of 37 individuals in connection with protests against these measures. A prominent activist who established an online platform offering free lessons to excluded students has disappeared under deeply concerning circumstances.
Finn Right International finds that the enforcement of these regulations constitutes a direct violation of Azerbaijan’s own constitutional guarantees of freedom of conscience and the right to education, as well as the binding international human rights obligations to which Azerbaijan is a State Party. The Commission calls for immediate corrective action by the Government of Azerbaijan and for sustained international attention to this developing human rights crisis.
Factual Background
The Regulatory Framework
On 21 September 2026, Azerbaijan’s Cabinet of Ministers approved formal amendments to the Descriptions of Uniforms for Students of State General Education Institutions. The revised regulations prohibit clothing that “violates school uniform consistency” or “does not comply with the principle of secular education.”
A separate set of clothing requirements for teachers, approved on 6 October 2026, mandates business-style attire and explicit adherence to what the regulations describe as the secular nature of education.
The text of both sets of regulations contains no explicit reference to the hijab or to any other item of religious dress. However, school administrations across Azerbaijan have interpreted and applied these provisions as categorically prohibiting headscarves — triggering a wave of exclusions, protests, arrests, and a growing international human rights crisis.
The deliberate use of vague regulatory language to achieve discriminatory outcomes without naming the targeted group is itself a recognized technique of institutional discrimination. It provides authorities with a veneer of neutrality while enabling systematic enforcement against a specific and identifiable religious community.
Enforcement and Exclusion
Multiple independent and credible sources have documented a consistent and deeply troubling pattern of enforcement across Azerbaijan since the regulations came into force.
Students wearing hijabs have been physically prevented from entering school buildings while their classmates entered without restriction. Videos of these incidents, widely circulated on social media, show young girls in headscarves being turned away at school entrances — denied access to the compulsory education to which they are constitutionally and legally entitled.
Female teachers wearing headscarves have been given explicit ultimatums: remove the hijab or leave the profession. English teacher Gulshan Aliyeva was reportedly barred from entering her school alongside her own daughters. One teacher, in a widely reported account, was asked to remove her headscarf and was seen saying a tearful farewell to her students before departing. These are not administrative inconveniences. They are acts of state-enforced religious discrimination against women.
In a significant expression of solidarity, students at multiple schools — including School Number 69 in Baku’s Balakhani settlement — boycotted classes in support of their excluded hijab-wearing classmates. Protesters carried banners bearing the words: “The hijab is not a barrier to education.”
On 12 October 2026, Azerbaijan’s Interior Ministry announced that 37 individuals had been arrested in connection with protest activities, with a criminal case opened under provisions concerning the organization of actions allegedly disrupting public order. The characterization of peaceful parental and student protests as criminal disruptions raises immediate and serious concerns regarding freedom of assembly and the proportionality of state response.
Additional Concerns
The human rights situation in Azerbaijan has been compounded by several additional developments of serious concern.
Users across Azerbaijan have reported significant difficulties accessing Instagram, TikTok, and X during the period of protests, with widespread claims that access to these platforms has been deliberately restricted to suppress the dissemination of information and documentation of the exclusions. The restriction of social media access during a period of public protest is a direct assault on freedom of expression and the ability of civil society to document state conduct.
Of particular urgency is the case of Ilkin Huseynov, an activist who established an online platform providing free educational lessons to students excluded from school on account of their religious dress. On 14 October 2026, Huseynov reportedly left his home accompanied by unidentified men. His mobile telephone has been switched off since that time. His whereabouts remain unknown. Finn Right International demands that Azerbaijani authorities immediately account for his safety and location.
Shahiza Huseynova, a mother who was protesting peacefully outside a school in Baku’s Mashtaga district, was detained by authorities. Her husband reported that she was explicitly warned: “Either you take off your child’s hijab and send them to school, or you go to prison.” This statement, if accurate, constitutes a direct and chilling threat by a state authority against a parent for exercising constitutionally protected rights.
Legal Analysis
Azerbaijan’s Constitutional Framework
The Constitution of Azerbaijan establishes the separation of religion and state under Article 18, guarantees the equality of all religious beliefs before the law, and explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion under Article 25.
Critically, the Constitution of Azerbaijan contains no provision authorizing the principle of secularism to override or nullify the right to education or the right to freedom of religious expression. The constitutional framework therefore provides no legitimate legal basis for the exclusion of students or teachers from educational institutions on grounds of religious dress.
The enforcement of the September 2026 uniform regulations as applied to hijab-wearing individuals is not consistent with Azerbaijan’s own constitutional order. It represents an exercise of executive and administrative power that lacks the constitutional foundation required to justify so fundamental a restriction on protected rights.
International Obligations
Azerbaijan is a State Party to both the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Both instruments contain binding obligations directly relevant to the situation under review.
Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including the right to manifest one’s religion in teaching, practice, and observance. Article 2 of Protocol 1 to the Convention guarantees that the right to education shall be ensured without discrimination.
Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects freedom of manifest one’s religion or belief, subject only to limitations that are prescribed by law and are demonstrably necessary to protect public safety, order, health, morals, or the fundamental rights of others. Article 24 guarantees to every child the right to measures of protection without discrimination of any kind.
The European Court of Human Rights has established in its consistent jurisprudence that restrictions on religious dress in educational settings must be justified by concrete and specific evidence of a genuine threat to public order, the rights of others, or the particular educational mission of the institution concerned. The blanket enforcement of vague and ambiguous regulations against a visible religious minority, without individualized assessment and without demonstrated evidence of harm, raises grave and fundamental proportionality concerns that cannot be resolved by reference to secularism alone.
Findings
Based on the totality of documented evidence gathered and reviewed in the course of this investigation, Finn Right International makes the following formal findings:
Finding One: The enforcement of Azerbaijan’s September 2026 school uniform regulations has resulted in the systematic and de facto exclusion of hijab-wearing girls from access to compulsory education. This constitutes a violation of Azerbaijan’s constitutional guarantee of the right to education and of its binding international obligations under both the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Finding Two: The regulations, while deliberately framed without explicit reference to the hijab, create a regulatory framework that permits and enables arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement against a specific and identifiable religious community. The absence of clear, objective, and legally defined criteria for what constitutes non-compliant attire — combined with the documented pattern of enforcement exclusively targeting Muslim head coverings — demonstrates that these rules are being selectively applied to target one religious group.
Finding Three: The arrest of 37 individuals — including parents engaged in peaceful protest — and the reported disappearance of activist Ilkin Huseynov following his departure with unidentified men, raise grave and immediate concerns regarding freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, and protection against arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance.
Finding Four: The reported restriction of access to social media platforms during a period of public protest constitutes a violation of freedom of expression and directly undermines the ability of civil society to document, report, and respond to human rights violations as they occur.
Recommendations
Finn Right International respectfully submits the following formal recommendations to all relevant authorities and stakeholders:
To the Government of Azerbaijan:
First, immediately suspend the enforcement of the uniform regulations insofar as they are being applied to exclude hijab-wearing students and teachers from educational institutions across the country. No child must be denied access to education on the basis of religious dress.
Second, issue clear and binding public guidance confirming that the regulations do not prohibit the hijab and that no student or teacher shall face exclusion, dismissal, or any form of adverse action on the basis of wearing a headscarf.
Third, release immediately all individuals detained solely in connection with peaceful protests against the uniform regulations and withdraw all related criminal charges without condition.
Fourth, publicly account for the safety and current whereabouts of activist Ilkin Huseynov without further delay. Any failure to do so will be treated by this Commission as evidence of enforced disappearance — a grave violation of international human rights law.
Fifth, immediately restore unrestricted public access to all social media platforms, in full accordance with Azerbaijan’s binding international commitments to freedom of expression and freedom of information.
To Finn Right International Finland:
First, issue an immediate and public statement formally condemning the exclusion of hijab-wearing students and teachers from educational institutions in Azerbaijan.
Second, engage the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs to raise this matter directly and formally with Azerbaijani authorities, and through all relevant mechanisms of the European Union and the Council of Europe.
Third, provide active support to Azerbaijani civil society organizations engaged in documenting these violations, including through the provision of emergency assistance for legal support and human rights documentation.
Fourth, coordinate with international partners — including the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and the relevant United Nations Special Procedures mandate holders — to ensure that sustained and effective international attention is directed to the human rights situation in Azerbaijan.
Conclusion
Finn Right International finds that the current enforcement of Azerbaijan’s school uniform regulations constitutes a clear, documented, and ongoing violation of two of the most fundamental human rights recognized under international law: the right to education and the right to freedom of religion.
The exclusion of girls from their classrooms because of their religious dress is not a neutral administrative measure. It is an act of discrimination. It cannot be justified by reference to secularism alone. Secularism is a principle of governance. It is a framework for the relationship between the state and religion. It is not, and has never been, a license for the state to discriminate against its own citizens on the basis of their faith.
Every girl who was turned away from her school this month in Azerbaijan was turned away from her future. Every teacher who was forced to choose between her faith and her profession was subjected to a choice that no state has the right to impose.
Finn Right International calls upon the Government of Azerbaijan to act immediately, to restore the right to education for every student, and to demonstrate through concrete action not words its commitment to the constitutional and international human rights obligations by which it is bound.
No child’s education should end at a school gate because of what she believes.
Finn Right International Human Rights Commission Pori, Finland finnright.com info@finnright.com
Read more about the Azerbaijan hijab school ban 2026 and its implications for the right to education, religious freedom and international human rights protections.